I found the other day that Microsoft Hardware had released drivers and software to get their LifeCams to work on Windows 7, something that was long over due. For quite a few months of the year I couldn’t use my webcam on my pc because Microsoft, yes the maker of both the operating system and the hardware, had not got the two working together properly. This puzzled me as nearly all the competitors were able to have their hardware working on Windows 7.

I wondered why it has taken Microsoft so long to get their own webcams working with the new operating system but then when I was installing the LifeCam software I noticed it needs to install Windows Live Essentials at the same time, then it dawned on me. Perhaps it took Microsoft so long to get their webcams working because they were waiting on other software to be complete and not just Windows 7, they were waiting for Windows Live Wave 4.

Another piece of information that support my theory of tight integration between Microsoft’s LifeCams and Windows Live is that today the first HD webcam is being launched by Microsoft and so I had a look on its website. There it states that it is optimised for Windows Live Messenger, not something new, but that it also works with Movie Maker and Photo Gallery, obviously the Movie Maker integration is something only a few weeks old. It doesn’t specify if you can record yourself and then use Windows Movie Maker to upload the video or if you can directly record yourself in the Windows Live application (I have had a look in both applications to see if you can capture Videos or Photos inside the applications but I can’t see how to get it too work, might be my camera or that it doesn’t mean a users can use the applications to capture videos and photos). There is already some integration between Windows Live and Microsoft LifeCams but I think there could and should be more to come.

There is already a lesser known Windows Live service called Video Messages, it is currently in beta and has been for some time, that works with webcams in a browser and I think this service could well be part of Windows Live Video. What I see happening is that when Wave 4 hits and if there is a new Video service, which is looking increasingly more likely, there will be the option to record and upload videos from a users webcam straight to the service. If this is implemented then I would expect to see a similar thing for the Photos service where pictures are taken in the browser and instantly in the user’s SkyDrive (a similar system is already used by Facebook to use a Webcam for  a user’s profile picture). To really make the suite work well with webcams users should be to capture video, audio and photos using a webcam in the Windows Live applications and not have to use the LifeCam software to do the same thing as it only slows the process down, especially if people only want to publish them to an online album like Facebook.

I don’t often use my webcam but I know of lots of people who do, it would good for Microsoft to allow users to capture pictures, video and audio using their webcams, then edit them in the applications from the Essential Suite and then upload them for the world to see with new Windows Live services. As always this could all be circumstantial and we wont see any kind of implementation like this, it would be a shame to miss out on such integration though.

Obviously SkyDrive will need to have increased storage for this to happen so what will we be looking at? Currently the largest free online storage service is ADrive with 50GB for free, I expect this would be the minimum size for an updated SkyDrive. I have filled up my Live Mesh account and there are quite a few files I would like to sync with my Live Desktop but can’t with the current size of only 5GB; I probably couldn’t fill up 50GB very easily.

Something else that I think needs to be added to Live Mesh is someway of accessing the drive from the PC without having to open up a browser. Having it as a virtual drive would make it far more useful and more of a competitor with some of the current free online storage services. With a virtual drive on a local computer it would make sense to allow developers to create plugins to really get the most out of an online storage service, maybe SkyDrive would make use of the Live Framework and allow users to run their own apps in it.

A final point I would like to point out is that if my prediction of a Windows Live Videos service coming in Wave 4 then I think a larger, more comprehensive and useful SkyDrive is needed if people are uploading videos to their Windows Live account. Lets hope there is some real innovation and expansion of the current SkyDrive service to make it the best way to store files online and keep them in sync across the web, computers and mobiles.

Is it possible?

I think it is very likely to happen seeing as Microsoft are getting rid of the video uploading service SoapBox very soon. I can’t see Microsoft putting all this effort into Movie Maker and make it so easy to upload the videos but then not allow their users to upload it to one of their own services.

The video service could also be linked to other video uploading services like YouTube and show other users in someone’s network what videos they have been uploading.

One final thing that adds credibility to my prediction is that Paul Thurott, in his review of Movie Maker, says:

One thing that’s missing, of course, is a way to post your video creations on a Microsoft service. Since Microsoft killed the Soapbox service, there’s been a void, and while the company has nothing to announce at this time, suffice to say they will be adding Windows Live-oriented publishing capability in the future.

I’m not sure if there is a great need for a video service especially seeing as Microsoft are pulling their current video service and because of the competition, but then I thought that of Windows Live Photos and now I use that all the time. I would like to know more about this and hope to see what Microsoft have got planned for a Windows Live Video service.